Pilot zero plastic waste on Coto island

PLASTIC WASTE NO WASTE Pilot IN CO TO ISLAND.

From September 1, 2022, in order to develop sustainable tourism, Co To island district (Quang Ninh) encourages tourists not to bring plastic bottles, plastic bags, materials with risk of environmental pollution when traveling. Bowl.

The pilot will be implemented for about 3-6 months, then will be summarized to move towards the official application of this regulation. On the first day of the pilot, plastic bags were collected by tourists to the island.

The history of Plastic, going from the pinnacle of invention to the villain of the Earth.

One of the greatest inventions in human history besides electricity is plastic. The great invention called plastic over time has been applied to people's lives more and more, bringing quite a lot of convenience to people, and since then, a global danger has begun to form. double-sided and plastic is no exception. In this article, CCO and you learn about the history of plastic and the hazards that threaten the world directly.

1 Formation and development of plastic.

Going back in time about a decade ago, plastic bottles or bottled water are one of the top favorite accessories for supermodels because of their fashion. But at the present time it seems to become a "sinner" that makes people want to erase as quickly as possible from the earth.

1.1 Plastic was discovered by accident:

Around the second half of the 19th century humanity faced the problem of killing animals, specifically elephants. In order to apply high-quality billiard balls, people continuously kill hundreds or even thousands of elephants, in order to create a large number of billiard balls. In fact, to produce a billiard ball one needs at least one pair of ivory, which means that for every set of balls produced, at least two elephants lose their lives. By the middle of the 19th century alone, not less than half a ton of ivory was consumed by the world for the purpose of making billiards, a sport favored by the elites of Europe and America.

The researchers are very concerned about the situation of the elephant species being threatened more and more seriously. In 1863, the father of American billiards game Michael Phelan came up with an initiative by launching a contest with a cash prize of now equivalent to 200,000 USD for anyone who finds a method to succeed in ivory.

Unexpectedly, the person who passed the challenge was a young printer don Wesley Hyatt, who had no training in chemistry. About six years later, in his search for experiments, he discovered that the world could be transformed by the first industrial plastic called Celluloid. Not the ideal substitute for the revolutionary ivory rescue ball, but celluloid quickly found its use as an alternative to ivory.

1.2 The pinnacle of invention plastic.
The reason for the question of why many conveniences and popular applications in modern life is because plastic exists in both hard and soft forms. Plastic material is not waterproof, so there is no chance of corrosion or mold. Not only that, one can make many like expensive materials, eye-catching colorful forms and most importantly, durability with low production costs.

The timing of the introduction of plastic brought with it the most prominent advantages among them, which is to reduce the exploitation of elephants. Besides, plastic is like the savior of some other animals such as turtles - raw materials for combs, coral - materials for jewelry.

Undoubtedly, plastic is welcomed by the world with the most positive. In 1955 LIFE magazine published a popular edition praising single-use plastic. The article mentions the content that housewives do not need to spend 40 hours struggling with household items because now we can throw them away immediately after using single-use plastic materials. , undeniably the original ideal invention of plastic is no longer relevant to the current life situation. Instead, there are dangers big and small brought by single-use plastic.

1.3 New magic resin was born.

The first produced plastic bottles were an effective solution with their lightweight characteristics. However, it is easy to absorb chemicals and cannot tolerate carbonated water. In the 70s, a type of plastic that completely changed the world of miracle plastic was called PET.

Scientists from the company Du Pont have been creating Polyethylene Terephthalate since 1941 when doing experiments with polymers. In 1973, a scientist at the Du Pont company named Nathaniel Wyeth registered the patent for the first plastic kitchen bottle. Bottles made of plastic materials are now raised to a new level with obvious advantages: safe, lightweight and can be reused instead of recycling. This is considered to be the generation of pioneering complete plastic bottles offering to use plastic bottles forever.

Based on data provided by Cointainer Recycling from 1960 to 1970. Each person buys an average of 200 to 250 water bottles per year, most of which are reusable plastic bottles. Another source of data from Cointainer Recycling shows that an average of 1,000,000 more plastic drinking water bottles are released to the market every minute.

In daily life, memory appears in many different places and environments. This is to affirm that the features and uses of plastic are becoming familiar and indispensable to people. With the modern rhythm of life, it has been developed into many diverse and rich types of applications in many industries in life such as industry, electricity, printing.

2. Plastic becomes the villain of the Earth.

Humans are currently facing threats from the natural habitat. This problem directly and seriously affects humanity by what mother nature brings. Do people have to pay the price when they accidentally or intentionally hurt Mother Nature? Through many people using but overusing plastic has brought many unforeseen dangers.

2.1 Take advantage or abuse.

Based on the current situation, plastic is produced about 300 million tons per year, and this number shows signs of stopping. Expected to increase significantly, this huge amount of plastic will soon become waste because of the habit and nature of being used only once. This consequence makes the life of plastic shorten while having a decomposition period of up to hundreds of years.

Today's plastic products we easily come across anytime, anywhere in large quantities include: plastic bottles, plastic tools, plastic toys, plastic materials or used as machine accessories... The typical number that we most often use is the plastic drinking water bottles made of plastic.

It is estimated that up to 800 million tons of plastic waste accumulates in the oceans every year. Not to mention many products made from plastic are polluting the soil environment. Therefore, plastic is the main cause of death for many animals and creatures, although before that plastic appeared to be the savior to save their lives.

2.2 Global Hazards:

In the natural environment, plastic waste is difficult to decompose. Depending on the type of plastic, they need different time to decompose, but in general it takes a long time, at least hundreds of years and even up to thousands of years.

According to information from Environment & Urban newspaper:
- 150 years to 500 years for plastic straws and bottle caps to decompose.
- 450 years to 1000 years for plastic bottles to decompose.
- Over 500 years for plastic brushes to decompose.

In addition, animals and creatures whether living in water or on land can die from ingesting plastic waste. Thereby, it can be seen that if this situation continues, the risk of extinction of animal and biological species is relatively high and leads to ecological imbalance.
Plastic waste, if not properly handled in time, will have direct consequences for the living environment. Specifically, the country's air when people burn plastic waste, they will produce toxic toxins furan, dioxin... Causing air pollution that affects human health serious, it has the potential to cause terrible diseases to humans such as poisoning, cancer, weakened immune system, endocrine gland diseases.
The process of burying plastic waste makes the soil unable to hold water and nutrients. In addition to preventing oxygen through the soil, it also has a negative impact on the growth and development of plants, not stopping, plastic is also the agent that causes water pollution, destroying the life of animals. There are many beneficial creatures underground.
Plastic waste has been and will cause many "white pollution" phenomena in the very places where people relax and rest, such as tourist attractions. From an invention that is said to be high, "one minute convenient - thousand years bad" has gradually become an enemy of the Earth. Because of the huge impact they bring, we need to join hands to protect our own living environment and small daily actions such as: limiting the use of single-use plastics and actively recycling those products from them.